The FAO FRA Remote Sensing Survey

As part of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (FRA 2010), the UNFAO and its member countries and partners will undertake a global remote sensing survey of forests. This survey will substantially improve knowledge on forest dynamics, including deforestation, afforestation and natural expansion of forests. The primary aims of the new global survey are to obtain information on the distribution of forests and on changes in forest area over time at regional, biome and global levels.

The survey has two main components:

Generating a new, validated global tree-cover map using time-series imagery from MODIS satellites at 250m resolution. This will be done in cooperation with South Dakota State University.

Gathering and analyzing the best existing global imagery (Landsat images at 30 m resolution) from 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2005 for improved estimates of forest area and forest area change. This will be done by FAO, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in close collaboration with countries.

Selection of archival Landsat satellite images (at 30 m resolution) at more than 10,000 locations across the planet will provide a comprehensive sample of the world's land surface for 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2005. Each sample tile will cover a 10 km by 10 km square at each junction of one degree of latitude and longitude (approximately 100 km apart). Images will be processed to provide statistically reliable estimates of forest extent and change at regional, biome and global levels. The results will enable an internally consistent global assessment of forest change dynamics.